PS 3531 

. E85 S6 

1904 




il;,;::: 
I- 



mi' ' 

lii: 

mk.y.: 




p,- . *^^ -"<. . %^^^^/ .^^' ^^^^ 




^v 










o V 







'^-0^ 







- . • » ■v »■ ^> 




4 O 












•'^^^^'' X/ '^'•' %.^' 















A SONG 



OF 



THE LATTER DAY 

BY 

FREDERICK PETERSON 



NEW YORK 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

MCMIV 



uiRaSTY nf CONGRESS 
Two Copies 8ec«ive<} 

JUL 11 1904 

(\ Cooyrlgrht Entry 
6lmSS C\y XX6. No. 

^ s- 5 ro 

COPY B 



Copyright 1904 by yj , 

Frederick Peterson C t^ rO in 






The Edirion is limited to 
Two Hundred and Fifty Copies 



Arranged and Printed at 
The Cheltenham Press, New York 



TO MY WIFE 



CONTENTS 






Pajc 


Evolution and Pantheism 


11 


The Stream of Life 


23 


The Procession of the Retreating Gods 


27 


The New Faith 


33 


The Apotheosis of Dust 


39 


Love 


45 


The Prophecy of Evolution 


49 


Changelessness and Change 


55 


The Quest 


59 


A Glimpse behind the Veil 


65 


"Courage, camarade, le diable est mort" 


71 



'The Years that bring the Philosophic Mind" 77 



EVOLUTION AND PANTHEISM 



EVOLUTION AND PANTHEISM 

FROM the sea-deeps unto this latter day 
I climbed the spiral Stair of Life to gain 
This hour of mine, this hour of human pain, 
This hour of human joy that cannot stay. 

One moment from a hundred million years — 
Out of eternity! I waited long 
For this brief space of tenderness and song, 
Of dreams and music, happiness and tears. 



L. of C 



One flash to view the majesty of earth, 
The glooms of space, the pageantry of Time, 
The web of orbits in a woof sublime, 
The mighty suns' recurrent death and birth. 

So short a wakening out of endless night ! 
The glow-worm's glimmer that is gone so soon 
In the brown twilight of the drowsy June 
Were scarcely briefer than that human light. 



12 



Thou hast climbed with me from that lowly place 
Up from the sea-deeps to this latter day 
(O sweet companion of a weary way! ) 
Till lately blindly, though with equal pace. 

We had no leader ; neither knew to choose 
The certain path, yet upward change by change 
We rose through lives mysterious and strange — 
We blossomed from the sun-dust and the ooze. 



13 



First flame and water, then the tiny cell, 
That seized the carbon miracle of life 
And wrought a myriad monsters ere the strife 
Had end — long since we passed them, knew th< 

Ah, brothers of the fern-morass and fen. 
Ah, brothers of the great, gray, wandering sea. 
Creatures of air, of quagmire, and of lea — 
All hail ! ye lost progenitors of men I 



14 



Ye, and the legions after you, lay deep 

Ensorcelled in the strata of the earth, 

Waiting the Magic Reader of your birth. 

Your death, your wayward course from sleep to sleep. 

Ye were the first born of the Mother Clay ! 
Volcanoes girt and lightning scarred her frame. 
Earthquake and warring wind and flood and flame 
Lay bare the passion of that natal day. 



15 



*Twas from the self-same moist hot glebe we car 
With hand and foot and wing and fin and hoof ; 
One Mother bore us, one ancestral roof 
Was ours, one milk, and one primordial name. 

We scattered on a thousand different ways 
And grew estranged in our banishment ; 
Skyward and landward, seaward far we went. 
Through aeons that were brief and swift as days. 



16 



We fought as aliens in the steaming fens ; 
We battled on the tempest-rent plateaus ; 
We fed upon our brothers ; and, as foes, 
We lured them into eyries, lairs and dens. 

In glare of levin, through the thunder's roar. 
We ran the gauntlet of carnivorous jaws 
And saurian coils, red eyes and horrid claws- 
Through all that bloody chaos on we bore ! 



17 



*Tis the same story to this later day : 
Still ring the war-songs, still the shafts are hurled 
Against our brothers round the crimsoned world, 
Where Life and Death dispute their ancient sway. 

And O, remorseless Mother, thou hast seen 
Some die for faith and some in tender youth 
For the great light that lit their souls, for truth, 
By fagot, sword and ruthless guillotine. 



18 



Sometimes a madness seized upon the soul 
Like to a tempest on a summer sea, 
Roused up by wrong and black iniquity 
To blood-red Terror and wild Carmagnole. 

What blood hath drenched and sanctified the earth! 
What blood of ours and blood of kith and kin, 
By war and hunger spilled, hath been mixed in 
That sovereign dust whereof come death and birth ! 



19 



Behold for consciousness that dust prepare 
And spirit and breath to very dust return — 
All forms of life ground in the mighty quern 
Of the old earth to feed the Godhead there ! 



20 



THE STREAM OF LIFE 



II 

THE STREAM OF LIFE 

THE stream of life flows down from the wide past, 
And narrows to a strait in you and me, 
And then expands again, broad as the sea, 
And shoreless in the Scheme of Being vast. 

Flotsam and jetsam have been brought to us. 
And we our portion to the torrent give, 
Turbid or pure — that which has strength to live, 
And stain or clear the living waters thus. 



23 



Through us it sweetens or it bitter grows, 
And that sweet-bitter quality shall sweep 
Ever-increasing through that boundless deep 
Of purpose toward the future where it flows. 

We are the Past, from us the Future streams 
Into vast distances, toward some goal 
Foreshadowed only to the dazzled soul. 
Beyond the flight of visions or of dreams. 



24 



THE PROCESSION OF THE 
RETREATING GODS 



Ill 



THE PROCESSION OF THE RE- 
TREATING GODS 

IN yonder West beyond the purple rim 
Of the far sundown lands, behold a throng 
Of ghostly shapes that slowly moves along — 
The Gods retreating in the shadows dim ! 

Strange forms and faces, stern or full of woe. 
Grotesque, uncouth, barbaric and malign. 
Some glorious with a majesty divine — 
The idols of old peoples long ago ! 



27 



Sceptres and crowns they bear, and drooping wings, 
Strange jewels, crosses, spears and banners furled, 
Regalia of old empires of the world 
Of Phantasy, once ruled by Spirit-Kings. 

Forgotten Gods of many an alien race. 
Lords of the earth, air, water, fire and sky, 
Demons of Hell, and Angels of Most High, 
And here the Moon-god's, there the Sun-god's face ! 



26 



And where the dark is thickest, in the lead, 
Uncertain with his new-found human hands. 
There awkward gropes, or hesitating stands. 
The monkey-god of our remotest creed ! 

And near us pass inscrutable, serene. 
The Holy Seers of later age and day, 
From old Benares and from Mecca gray — 
These two beside the gentle Nazarene. 



29 



Down the dim trail these wanderers are gone, 
Once fashioned by our human faith and breath, 
The lords of life, the conquerors of death. 
Forth into darkness ! — lo, behold the Dawn ! 



30 



THE NEW FAITH 



rv 

THE NEW FAITH 

FOR now the potent Alchemist of Light 
Touches the peaks with wands of ruby fire, 
And pinnacle and fortalice and spire 
Flash roseate o'er the shadows of the night. 

Ah, magical glad morning-light of Truth, 
Still faint and dim but prescient of new day, 
The new God comes to sweep the old away. 
To bring new life,new hope,new strength,new youth, 



33 



We dwell in valleys where as yet the dark 
Hangs o*er us, but the silent peaks on high 
Fling out their flaming pennons to the sky, 
As oriflammes the coming day to mark. 

We hear the music of the rising wind. 
The matin of the birds, the wild bees' hum. 
The thousand sounds that through the night were 
A myriad murmurs in one hymn combined — 



34 



A planet-paean, one mysterious song 
From out the valleys, hills and lonely seas, 
That tells of God-in- All and vast decrees 
Of order, justice, law that knows no v^ong, 

Of infinite patience toiling toward the Best 
Through what seems ill to our poor mortal eyes, 
Of promise that the new Dawn realize 
The noblest visions bom of human breast. 



35 



THE APOTHEOSIS OF DUST 



THE APOTHEOSIS OF DUST 

OMAN, thou wondrous fabric of the clay, 
How hast thou climbed from that far place to this. 
Through what world-maelstroms in the vast abyss 
Of space and time, where Fate decreed the way ! 

Fate tossed thee on a tiny planet's crust. 
The endless circles of the void to roam ; 
This green sun-tethered ball became thy home. 
And thou — the Apotheosis of Dust. 



39 



For God-like art thou, there*s a God in thee 
Striving for beauty in some grand design, 
Which thou imperfect can'st not yet divine. 
Till that imprisoned God is once made free ! 

Yea, all the Gods are creatures of thy mind, 
And all the virtues born of thy high soul ; 
'Tis thy ideals that, from pole to pole. 
From age to age, have glorified thy kind. 



40 



Thou smilest in dying, yea, wilt sacrifice 
On any altar that seems true to thee 
Thy little moment of Eternity, 
Nor reckon aught of Hell or Paradise! 

And thine the arts of song and pipe and string 
That teach the Soul the ways of dreams to go, 
The rapturous pathways winding to and fro 
Between Forgetting and Remembering. 



41 



With burin, brush and chisel thou hast made 
The picture speak, the formless marble breathe — 
There is a power whose thoughts of beauty seethe 
In thee, and all thy striving brain pervade, 

A God-in- All, impetuous to express 
His beauty manifold, his plan profound, 
Through light and color, motion, form and sound. 
Through towering thoughts, and passions limitless. 



42 



LOVE 



VI 
LOVE 

AS in the night some eager searching wind 
Exults upon a windharp's eerie strings, 
So plays the World-wind from the Source of Things 
Across the chords of consciousness and mind. 



When God gave Life to us He gave us Love, 
Linking our souls to His divinity. 
Lest were forgot in all the stress to be 
His Heaven and our inheritance thereof. 



45 



And countless lovers under countless stars, 
Once one with all this world of seeming death, 
Are fused again by that immortal breath 
That blows from space across our prison bars. 



46 



THE PROPHECY OF EVOLUTION 



VII 
THE PROPHECY OF EVOLUTION 

THAT tiny particle of life that rose 
Through the abysm of time to make a man — 
Is this not promise of a vaster plan, 
A higher climb to heights no man yet knows ? 

As the seed struggles cramped and in the dark 
Up toward the light, up toward the perfect flower, 
So we, toward light and knowledge, love and power. 
Fixing our eyes on some diviner mark. 



49 



The low-browed Cave-man cowering with fear 
Of wild things, wind and thunder, and the night, 
Grew hero, grew exultant in the might 
Of mind, became philosopher and seer. 

The elements are slaves and mind his nod ; 
He reins and curbs the forces from his car. 
His whispers almost heard from star to star ; 
He grasps the lightnings like a very god ! 



50 



O poets, dreamers, man shall yet fulfill 
Your august promise in some after time, 
Travel to heights more splendid, more sublime, 
Be of the angels that ye picture still ! 

The cities that now blacken the sweet earth 
Shall go the way of Thebes and Babylon, 
Be mounds all green and fragrant in the sun 
Until new cycles witness their re-birth. 



51 



With fairy pinnacles and many a dome 
All white above the garden-studded hills, 
As if the builders bended to their wills 
Tissue of cloud and fabric of sea-foam. 



52 



CHANGELESSNESS AND CHANGE 



VIII 
CHANGELESSNESS AND CHANGE 

THE Dolphin, Swan and Eagle nightly keep 
Their ancient watch o'er human joys and woes, 
And the old primal music ebbs and flows 
On shores where moon and trades still rule the deep. 

The seasons come as yesteryear they came ; 
The rose of yesterday seems this day's rose ; 
The hills re-whiten with their annual snows ; 
All, all return, yet nevermore the same ! 



55 



For Changelessness is but a veil for Change, 
Hiding the flux of things, the implacable flow 
Of continents toward the sea, the slow 
Upheaval of the earth-folds range on range. 

The very rocks are plastic, turn to dust 
And feed the herds upon the grassy plain, 
The larger life of consciousness to gain, 
Holding the striving soul of earth in trust. 



1 



56 



THE QUEST 



IX 

THE QUEST 

A HUNDRED centuries of towering fanes 
To show the road — yet none knows where it leads ! 
Ten thousand years of formulas and creeds 
And still the secret of the world remains ! 



The round earth bristles with its countless spires 
That point the way to all the ends of space, 
Where sit the gods that rule our mortal race 
Enthroned amidst the firmament of fires. 



59 



Ah, might we follow to the bounds of space 
Lit by illusive beacons, should we find 
The Why and Wherefore that distract the mind. 
Or ride forever on a Phantom Chase ? 



If we might flash like light from sphere to sphere 
Should we disclose the Planner and the Plan, 
Or fail, — and then return to earth and man 
To dare again the Ancient Riddle here? 



60 



For surely here in man's unfathomed soul 
Shut fast within its narrow cranial cell, 
Lie reaches wide as Heaven and deep as Hell- 
The world, the universe, the mirrored Whole ! 



61 



A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE VEIL 



X 

A GLIMPSE BEHIND THE VEIL 

ONE force, one element ? Nay, force alone, 
One force there is upbuilds in myriad phase 
This flowing world-stuff and these vast displays 
Of action in the Unknown and the Known. 

Ah, life were but an hour of bitter grief 
Between eternities, if this were all — 
To wake — to know — to sleep, whatever befall. 
Among these wonders — 'twere beyond belief ! 



65 



Shut in by night and death and blinding doom 
One glimpses still the fitful shimmerings 
Of light amidst the tangled Woof of Things — 
The Spirit of the World beside the Loom ! 

Up from the deeps of the sub-conscious mind 
What dim penumbrae of ideals rise, 
Haunting suggestions of realities 
Beyond the vision of our eyes half -blind ! 



66 



The visible world is but a chrysalis 
Closed in for wintry aeons till the Spring 
Lay bare the glamour of the splendid wing- 
Its soul's triumphant metamorphosis ! 



67 



"COURAGE. CAMARADE, 
LE DIABLE EST MORT" 



XI 



"COURAGE, CAMARADE, LE 
DIABLEEST MORT" 

THIS hour between the cradle and the urn, 
The largesse of the earth and winds and skies, 
O make it good and gentle, brave and wise. 
That bounty of our Mother to return ! 

Away with habit, sloth and prison-bars ! 

Let us keep holy vigils, climb the steep. 

Explore high Heaven, and watch from deep to deep 

The mighty drama of the whirling stars ! 



71 



A dreamless sleep from all eternity — 
A dreamless sleep through cycles yet to come- 
And shall I then be sightless, soundless, dumb. 
For this one hour that was decreed to me ? 



Surcease of joy is one with ease of pain ; 
Why steep the senses in the drowsy juice 
Of poppy, or the Demon Wine let loose 
To blight the climbing visions of the brain ? 



72 



Why close the gates against the morning light, 
The stir of force that shall be, is, has been. 
In peopled planets and in suns that spin 
Like swarms of fireflies in the dome of night ? 



73 



"THE YEARS THAT BRING 
THE PHILOSOPHIC MIND" 



XII 

"THE YEARS THAT BRING THE 
PHILOSOPHIC MIND" 

IN some old garden*s tranquillest recess, 
The throstle singing by the gliding burn, 
Fragrant with bloom amid the moss and fern. 
Far from the city's turmoil and distress — 

There let us seize the vagrant, winged hours, 
The while the cedar marks them one by one 
With slender shadow — gnomon of the sun 
Circling the tinted dial of the flowers ! 



77 



Perhaps the peace of yonder cloud and sky, 
The patience of the tireless, ancient earth, 
So kind to grief, so serious to mirth, 
May touch our hearts to their serenity. 

There let us read some old exulting song 
Out of men*s souls distilled with deathless rhyme' 
In the alembic of the world and time — 
Triumphant music of the great and strong. 




^y 



78 



L C ? :m> 9 



Who risen from dust have swept a thousand strings 
Vibrant with being ; to the stars arise 
Their songs of passions and of destinies — 
Immortal incense out of mortal things. 



79 



















DOBB'i BROS. 0^ 

LIBRARY BINOINQ O 



JUSTIN, . ,^ -^ ° • ° / . . . o, % • " A*"^ , . . 






."-IBRARY 



CONGRESS 



937 374 



m 



■mp 

1ik 



I 



i'im'W 



KA 






'mm 



1 



M^'ihyM''^- 



xu.v 



H^ 



:i hi 



b^,? 






'H 



m 



'\m 



^Wm 



itiHi 






*m 



'mnm 



m 



41 

tmm 



